


Toddler Tales - The Giant Octocat in the Room

by Sister of Silence (Orcbait)



Series: An Age of Heroes [1]
Category: Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Cute, Gen, Toddlers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-21 15:50:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2473787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orcbait/pseuds/Sister%20of%20Silence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a trip beyond the Imperial Palace Chief Companion Vendatha returns with toddler Arlette entrusted to his care, but despite the little one's obvious happiness with a newly bought toy the adults are concerned over its implications.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Toddler Tales - The Giant Octocat in the Room

**Author's Note:**

> Set really early in the Crusade Era, this is the same timeline as teen!Horus being found and raised by the Emperor. Arlette is still an adorable toddler here.

The Emperor smiled when He saw Vendatha Aurelon appear from the dense crowd that traversed the great thoroughfare before the outer palace gates. In his civilian garments the once Chief Companion was all but unrecognisable. His exceptionally long hair had been braided and wound into an unimaginative knot and his garments, while fine, were drab and drew no attention to his person. However, his long, hawkish profile was unmistakable even at this distance. That and the little girl sitting on the left side of his hip, one small arm around his still thick neck and the other clutching a plushie. She suddenly pointed in His direction and a wave of happily bubbling thoughts crashed against His mind, drawing a faint smile from Him. It would seem their trip had been a grand success. Despite undoubtedly being hurried along by the girl, Vendatha walked no faster than he did before and it took him several more minutes to reach them.

“Good evening, sire,” Vendatha hailed when they were close, then inclined his head at Malcador. “My lord.”

“Aurelon,” Malcador returned with a kind nod.

“Hello Empwah!” the child chirped up straight through the adults' greetings. She let go of Vendatha's neck to stretch out a hand towards the Emperor, the plushie still clutched in the other. Vendatha immediately shifted his hold on her, keeping her from toppling from his waist. “Careful, Arlette,” he warned.

“Sorry!” She returned without averting her gaze, waving her outstretched arm at Him. Though it was obvious she wished to be picked up, He made no move to do so. Instead He sat on His haunches so that He was on eye height with her.

“I heard you went to see the Oceanium's new resident?” He asked, smiling more broadly than He normally would to make sure she understood His tone.

“The octocat was really big and scary but I wasn't afraid!” She replied as she nodded enthusiastically, dropping her arm to instead hug her plushie with both as she related her tale. “It had lots of arms! And a round mouth hole full of scary teeth.”

“Wasn't it frightening to see it so close?” He asked.

“Only a little! Endada said the glass was very thick and it can't bite through?” She glanced from the Emperor to Vendatha and back, as if gauging their expressions for truth. “Endada also said it's a giant octopus, but a pus is a girl and this was a boy so it must be an octocat! It's a giant octocat isn't it?”

He smiled at her assessment. The logic of children was a wonderfully creative thing. “I think you might just be right, little eagle.”

“Seeeeee! I told you!” She immediately turned to Vendatha. “I said it, I said it! I said Empwah would know. He did bring the octocat so He would know.”

“It seems you were right all along, sweetie,” Vendatha conceded with the wry sort of smile that comes from arguing facts with a child.

“Where did you get this new toy?” the Emperor inquired, indicating the plushie she held squeezed against her. With its gold felt armour, dark rope hair and laurels it was quite unmistakable.

“At the sea zoo where the octocat was!” She replied as she thrust the plushie forward to show it off. “Endada bought it when I asked nicely.” She seemed mighty pleased with it.

The Emperor glanced at Vendatha, whose expression spoke volumes to the contrary. They had turned it into quite the circus on account of your return and the creature you brought along. I managed to avoid the souvenir stands until we left, for there was one squat in the middle of the exit hall.

+And she wanted one of these?+ A faint smile played across His features as memory images from the afternoon gathered among Vendatha's thoughts.

Homed in on them like a predator on prey. I tried to distract her, sire, but she would not stop wailing. People started to look up. It was clear from the remnant distress clinging to Vendatha's thoughts that he had tried to keep a low profile even though nothing drew attention from strangers like a crying child in front of a toy stand.

\+ Do not worry about it, Vendra.+ He almost chuckled. +I do believe children can sense toys in their vicinity.+

Sire. Vendatha was most definitely worrying about it. It is a plushie. Of you.

\+ I did notice. I can't say I was aware they existed though I am not entirely surprised. + An amused look flitted across His stern features.

Vendatha's reluctant thoughts made it obvious he didn't think it quite so amusing. I checked it for small parts and other hazards.

\+ Good. + Time regathered momentum as the Emperor tilted His head, looking the plushie all but shoved under his nose up and down. “That's an incredible plushie, littlest,” He commented after a moment. Arlette beamed as she hugged it close again. “What will you call it?”

She glanced up at Him with an expression as if she thought He'd gone simple, which after a moment congealed into that typical look of a child thinking you're trying to trick them. “Silly Empwah,” she said then. “He's you! So, his name is Empwah too.”

A smile twitched at the corner of His lips as He glanced at the plushie from the corner of His eyes. “We do look a little alike, don't we?”

She held the plushie up next to His face, looking from the toy to Him and back with all the intensity of a four year old's undivided scrutiny. “His nose is too small,” she concluded without batting an eye.

Malcador wheezed a noise that could have been a laugh and a cough both.

“He is smaller than me,” He replied without missing a beat. “It follows that his nose is smaller than mine,” He added as He pinched her nose, making her giggle. “Just like yours.”

She smiled broadly as she cuddled the toy. “Now you'll always be with me.”

The Emperor's smile faltered for a moment but He quickly recovered. “I think you should take a bath, I heard there might be spring rolls with dinner for everyone that is clean.”

The girl whooped with joy at hearing her favourite snack might be had. “Quick, Endada! Quick!” she called to Vendatha as she leaned over to grasp his neck, all but kicking the man like one would a horse in her hurry to get to a bath. “Quick or they'll all be eaten by Horus!”

Vendatha shifted the girl's weight and expertly directed her kicking feet away from his loins. “Sire,” he said as he inclined his head. Half an hour?

\+ About so. + The Emperor nodded and watched them leave, a thoughtful frown creasing His brow.

“You seem worried,” Malcador remarked quietly when they had all but disappeared in the distance. He had almost forgotten His old friend was there.

\+ Pensive, maybe. + He replied without averting His gaze. He could still see them, with His mind.

Malcador leaned on his staff as he followed the Emperor's gaze to the crowd in the distance. He too still sensed the Companion and his little charge. The Emperor and Aurelon had once been very close, but a distance the size of a small child had squeezed between them. Aurelon took his new duties very seriously and though the Emperor didn't think they need interfere with their closeness, He respected the Companion's choice to take a step back. Malcador suspected the stalwart Companion did not want to interfere, accidentally or otherwise, between the Emperor and the woman the child would become. Regardless, Malcador could feel the sadness that clung to the Companion and he did not doubt the Emperor could feel it too.

“Children know whether they are loved or not,” Malcador said at length, accurately guessing what was on the Emperor's mind. “There is no doubt she feels how much you care for her, but it is Vendatha who comes when she calls. She's too young to understand your absence beyond what he tells her – that you're very busy. She accepts it as a simple truth the way children do though it does not change the fact that she wishes you were there when she calls.” Malcador was quiet for a moment, then continued: “I believe it is why she made such a fuss over the plushie when she saw it, forcing Aurelon to buy it with all the tyranny a four year old can muster. It shares your likeness but it's also a toy which puts it in her world and control. It'll be there when she wants it.”

\+ It's merely a toy and a cheap one at that. She should not have to substitute affection with a souvenir.+ He returned sternly, his expression grim. + I should be there, make time.+

“I do not think it is 'merely' anything, to her,” Malcador replied thoughtfully. “To her those scraps of felt are you in a child's sense of reality. It'll sooth her and help her make sense of things in her own ways.”

A faint smile crossed the Emperor's features as He finally turned from the endless crowd and started back down the path leading into the gardens beyond the walls. “I meant to bring her along this time, you know. She so loves the stars.”

Malcador followed beside Him, the tap of his staff a reassuring sound. “Why did you not?”

The Emperor's gaze wandered across the garden before briefly resting on His old friend. “She's safer in Vendra's care than mine.”

Malcador shook his head slightly. “Vendatha remains behind the high walls of this palace while you must visit the frontlines of space. There is a difference.”

“Perhaps.” His expression had grown grim once more and He crossed His arms as they walked down the path.

“I dare say she's safest now, when you are home.” Malcador smiled and caught His mournful gaze. “And near.”

“I look for excuses to return to Terra more often than I should,” He admitted. “Even Horus has begun to notice.”

“Excuses?” Malcador shook his head once more. “You miss and are missed in turn. There is no better reason to want to return home.”

They walked in silence for a while, each to their own thoughts. Until they reached one of the inner court gardens and the play area and sandbox there. “This is the last time she'll ever grow up,” the Emperor remarked sadly as He put His hands on the low fence hemming the play ground. “I am glad she'll now be with me for however long I have left. I just...” He sighed and glanced sideways at Malcador, who stood patiently at His side as ever. “I feel... I miss out. I feel that one day I return from the stars and her last youth has passed and I have missed everything of it.”

“You won't,” Malcador said. “Not all of it. But if you wish for her to once more love you as you do her, you must heed your own council and keep distance until she settles her made-up familial ties.”

The Emperor nodded in agreement. “It is why the darn toy worries me.”

“It is but a toy,” Malcador replied with a knowing smile. “A bundle of felts to help a small child make sense of the world.” He turned to Him. “There will come a day when all is done and you can live your own life again, unburdened by responsibilities. Though I fear today is not that day.”

“No.” The Emperor agreed, His gaze wandering across the scattered wooden toys in the sand. They reminded Him of a time long past. A time that, perhaps, might come again. “Not today.”

“And probably not tomorrow,” Malcador added with a smile as he put his hand on His arm. “But one day, certainly. One day all that needs doing is done and you can retire to a life all your own again and she'll be there.”

A faint smile flitted across His features and He put His hand over his oldest friend's. “True.”

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of time and hard work went into the creation and publication of this story and as such it is very dear to me. I would love to hear what you thought of it! If you decide to share my story, please credit and link back to me. Thank you!


End file.
